


between the white anemone

by soyoyagi (soyokaze)



Category: End Roll (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-27 18:52:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8412739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soyokaze/pseuds/soyoyagi
Summary: Russell thought he found kindness and companionship in the young eastern doctor residing in a small secluded shop near Chris' neighbourhood.





	

It had been pure curiosity at first, when he heard from Chris’ drug peddler neighbour that there was a (shady) doctor around, he thought that he might as well take a look. It never occurred to him that a doctor around those parts might be expensive to see; a doctor is a doctor, and the bruises were beginning to be even more noticeable. He didn’t want to bother Miss Mireille so much, but when he saw the prices the young doctor charged for his herbal medicines, he bit his lower lip, muttered a quiet ‘Never mind,’ and tried to leave.

The doctor, who introduced himself as ‘Kantera’ stopped him, smiled at him and invited him in for tea. He awkwardly accepted the offer, leaving his shoes out in the shop with the doctor’s own flimsier pair of footwear. He vaguely wondered what they're called, as he was made to sit cross-legged at a low table on the carpeted ground. Everything felt extremely foreign to him and he voiced the thought as he watched Kantera brew two pots of tea, for some reason.

“To the people of this country, ‘tis must be so, though it is what is most familiar to me,” Kantera said, sliding a cup of tea to Russell with the barest tips of his fingers.

He was sitting on his knees, and somehow it made him look even more graceful than before, and Russell already thought that Doctor Kantera’s movements tend to be very pretty.

After taking the first sip, he set his own cup down and peered inside it. The brown liquid was still steaming, yet he didn’t feel like drinking it at all, even if it was unusually chilly that night. The doctor had offered him a taste of the tea he had been drinking, but when Russell tried it, he immediately and involuntarily made a face. It had a peculiar taste and an unusual murky green colour. While it wasn’t bad; the taste made Russell’s head spin. Doctor Kantera apologised and explained that he kept the western-preferred tea for such occasions, but the laughter in his eyes made Russell wonder if the apology was at all sincere. He felt a pang in his heart.

There was a momentary silence as the doctor simply sipped his tea and Russell stared at his.

Then, the doctor started talking. Russell was confused, but listened on anyway, because he didn’t really have anything to do. Doctor Kantera spoke to him in a gentle voice; of wingless dragons and beautiful mountains. His speech sounded weird to him; nobody spoke like he did but the oldest of his teachers, yet it felt like it contributed to the atmosphere of the stories. He spoke in prose that was simple yet descriptive enough for Russell to imagine the flow of the story; though inaccurate it might be for all he knows.

And hours passed that way, Russell only excusing himself because it was late and he had to return home. The doctor sent him off with a bag of medicine- one that Russell tried to refuse, for he lacked money, yet took because of Kantera's insistance that it was free. When Rusell looked back at the shop, he saw that the doctor was still standing by the doors, peering in his direction and waving to him when their eyes met. That made Russell walk faster. When he looked back after turning the corner, the doctor was gone.

 

The next day, Russell visited again. The events that transpired were almost a direct re-enactment of what happened the day before. Russell frowned as he ran around the corner that will take him to his own home.

As was the third day.

And the fourth.

And the fifth.

Russell was still puzzled over Kantera’s behaviour even after two weeks have elapsed, so he brought it up as the doctor put an oddly shaped pot of water on to boil. The doctor had looked at him, brushed his own chin with the tip of his pointer finger in an almost impossibly elegant manner, and smiled.

“I could hardly leave my shop, so I thought I shall look over you as far as the corner tis’ all. My grandfather did that to the kids that frequented his shop as well,” was the nonchalant reply Russell received.

He looked at the cup of tea in his hands, steam wafting gently from the brown liquid. He didn’t know how to take the doctor’s reply, so he didn’t say anything. Instead, he nodded and sipped his tea a little more, just so that he had something to do with his hands. The doctor was still watching him with a gentle smile; and it was something that Russell found himself taking comfort in.

“Did you come to listen to more tales?” he asked, setting down some snacks on the low table.

Russell nodded again, grabbing some tea cakes as he made himself more comfortable to prepare for hours of listening intently to Kantera’s somewhat otherworldly stories of his home country.

 

That night, he decided to go to a local used bookshop to see if he could find some books on eastern legends; ones like the doctor told him in conversation, in hopes that he might be able to find illustrations and other stories that he could relate with the ones the doctor already told him.

The cashier was a young lady who didn’t really care for the customers who were there, and only spoke to them if they wanted to buy something, which left Russell free to browse everything they had. He found some dusty old books in both foreign writing that was reminiscence of the writing that the doctor penned in his own hand- and English. At the time, Russell had asked what the ‘pictures’ meant, and the doctor said that he was simply writing a list of groceries in an eastern style of handwriting. Russell had thought it was a bit too long to be a list of things he needed around his house, but didn’t ask further.

He paid for the books, deliberately not looking at the lady as she raised an eyebrow at the books he purchased. The amount that totaled up wasn’t really that expensive, but it still took up most of his lunch money for the week. He pocketed the few pennies he still had left after the purchase, hugged the books, careful to not damage them. The cashier didn’t give him a bag to put the books in, but that was fine.

A lady police officer, who introduced herself as Officer Yumi caught him on the way home and escorted him. He was thankful that it was one of the days where his parents weren’t home, and he softly thanked her as she left. Russell promised her to never dither around when it got dark out again, but in his heart, he knew it as an empty promise. She left willingly after that, her smiling face shadowed as she walked down the moon-lit path that lead to the main street.

As Russell browsed the pages of the books he just bought, he thought of how pretty and bright Yumi’s smile was, in contrast to Kantera’s and Mireille’s somewhat fragile, yet still captivating ones.

 

By the third week since he first walked into Doctor Kantera’s medicine shop, he had read and immersed himself in the books he purchased- the parts that he could read, at least. Oftentimes he would take a page of a drawing out of the books and show them to the doctor. Whenever Russell did that, Kantera would cover his mouth with the sleeve of his robe, and his eyes would crinkle in a way that made Russell think of Gardenia’s own eyes, on her (his, their) birthday before he pushed her off the stairs. He would duck his head at that thought, and continue to sip tea as Kantera launch into an elaborate explanation of the things he’d shown him. He didn’t know what he was feeling, but it was starting to be very unpleasant, so Russell stopped showing Kantera the pages, saying that he had ran out of things to show him. Kantera tapped Russel’s chin with a finger gently, tells him that he has nothing to be sorry for, and smiled that fragile smile again.

Russell felt a little better after that, yet when he slept, Kantera’s smile haunted his dreams, along with Gardenia’s own. In these dreams, Gardenia would join Kantera as he watched Russell turn the corner to go home after a day of long conversation with the doctor, and their disembodied smiles would follow him home.

 

“Tis only been two fortnights since our first meeting has it not?”

For reasons Russell cannot comprehend, Kantera had insisted on treating Russell’s more recent bruises and cuts without taking any money at all. In the process of treating him, he had managed to coax him into relaxing and lying down on the doctor’s lap. It was hard, but comfortable. He had already finished rubbing ointment onto the bruises and cleaning the wounds by that point, yet he made no indication that Russell was free to go and Russell was very confused.

“Two fortnights?”

“A month.”

Russell nodded, and the top of his head brushed against Kantera’s hand. Russell didn’t know where to look, so he set his eyes on the set of drawers that line the walls opposite of them. The ones where he saw the young doctor pull out various tools from. The ones that held medicine that has to be ground before it could be used as a paste. The ones that held nothing but sheaves of paper with lists of the things the doctor had in the shop; he was told it’s called an inventory list. He felt Kantera’s hand move against his head. The gentle fingers stroking his hair made Russell want to close his eyes, so he did.

“It has only been a month.”

Russell opened his eyes. Kantera was looking at him, eyes soft.

“Yet I feel I could tell you everything.”

The moment passed by them without further incident as Kantera started to tell him about the Higanbana, the flowers that guide the dead into the world of the dead.

 

 

People in school were beginning to whisper things that were not true; the accusations of Russell hurting himself for attention amongst the usual, more truthful whispers about his family situation. Chris got in trouble many times trying to defend Russell, whenever he could, at least. He had been skipping school almost as much as Russell did. When Russell asked him about it, he said he was trying to get more pocket money by working for the drug dealer neighbour guy again.

“These people know nothing, yet they talk about you as if they know everything!” Chris said as he threw a pebble at the pavement from what Russell assumes is frustration and anger.

Russell looked away, expression set in what Chris had long assumed was displeasure. Russell just shrugged off Chris’ words of encouragement, and simply kept his mouth shut. He couldn’t help it. Chris knew nothing about him either, his mind supplied.

Gardenia’s pain-stricken face and the sounds of the Church burning mixed with horrible, somewhat shrill screaming had been playing on repeat like a broken video tape in his mind, over and over again. While his friend asked him if he’s up to playing a round of games over at his apartment, Russell nodded absently. He thought of how the dark clouds hanging over the school grounds looked sort of like the eastern funeral procession Kantera described just two days ago. Somehow, that train of thought came with the weird nagging feeling of wanting to see and be soothed by the doctor.

He asked a confused Chris to put his hand on the top Russell’s head and ruffle it. Russell decided that it felt better when Kantera did it.

The image of Kantera’s smile as he is dying in Russell’s arms, bleeding profusely from the stab wound Kantera asked from him, flashed suddenly before his eyes. His eyes were watery, and his smile was thin, possibly from pain. Russel knew that trying to smile when you’re in pain was a really hard thing to do, yet the young foreign doctor kept on smiling, even as the life faded from his eyes. Suddenly it felt like he was kneeling in Kantera’s shop again, holding his limp, lifeless body, still warm. His favourite green robe was stained with red, as were Russell’s hands, and the knife he used to do the deed.

Russell blinked. Chris was staring at him with concerned eyes.

Chris asked if he’s okay, and Russell honestly didn’t know what to tell him, so he just nudged him and started walking in the general direction of Puddle Apartments.

“I’ll be okay if you let me play that new game you just got,” he said.

"What about that eastern book you wanted to show me? Do you have it?"

Russell shook his head.

Chris didn’t press him further.

 

On the way home, Officer Yumi caught him again and this time, when she escorted him home, his dad was there, and he gave her the dirtiest look Russell’s ever seen on him so far.

 

**Author's Note:**

> In hanakotoba, white anemone means 'sincere'.  
> I tried to write this from Russell's point of view and to try limiting the use of emotional description in the story. Hopefully I did a passable job at it.
> 
> Edit: Fixed tenses (hopefully).


End file.
